Person

Riek, Edgar (1920 - 2016)

OAM

Born
1 May 1920
Napier, New Zealand
Died
9 February 2016
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Occupation
Entomologist

Summary

Edgar Riek was an entomologist who began his career in the field of biological control but moved to taxonomy because of the need for accurate identification before control programs were effective. His taxonomic research ranged over several orders of insects and he contributed nine of the 30 chapters in Insects of Australia (CSIRO 1970). In 1963 he published the first pocket guide to Australia's insect fauna, with another three editions issued to 1975. Riek also studied fossil insects as a means of understanding the evolutionary origins of insects. In 1973 he wrote on a Carboniferous megasecopteran insect from Tasmania, the oldest Australian insect discovered to date. His publications in this field earned him a DSc from the University of Queensland. The Australian National Insect Collection includes thousands of specimens collected by Riek. In Australian limnological circles he is remembered for his taxonomic work on mayflies, stoneflies and decapod crustaceans, and as a pioneer in the study of Australian freshwater crayfish. The genera Riekiella (Diptera), Riekisura (Hymenoptera) and Riekia (Hymenoptera) and many species were named in his honour. In retirement he became a noted figure in the Australian wine industry.

Details

Chronology

1939 -
Career position - Member, Entomological Society of Queensland
1939 - 1943
Career position - Laboratory Assistant, Department of Geology, University of Queensland
1943 - 1945
Career position - Demonstrator in Zoology, University of Queensland
1944
Career position - Secretary, Entomological Society of Queensland
1944
Education - BSc, University of Queensland
1945 - 1949
Career position - Assistant Research Officer, CSIRO Division of Economic Entomology
1946
Education - MSc, University of Queensland
1950 - 1978
Career position - Assistant Research Officer (later Principal Research Scientist), CSIRO Division of Entomology
1961
Career position - Foundation Member, Australian Society for Limnology
1971
Education - DSc, University of Queensland
1977
Award - Perkins Memorial Lecturer, Entomological Society of Queensland
1978
Life event - Retired
1996
Award - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to viticulture through the Canberra and District Winegrowers Association and the Canberra National Wine Show and to entomology

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • Yeates, D. K., 'Obituary: Edgar Riek OAM 1920 - 2016', Myrmecia, 52 (3) (2016), 2-7. Details

Helen Cohn

EOAS ID: biogs/P005941b.htm

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
What do we mean by this?

Published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology.
This Edition: 2024 February (Kooyang - Gariwerd calendar)
Reference: http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/gariwerd.shtml#kooyang
For earlier editions see the Internet Archive at: https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.eoas.info

The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation uses the Online Heritage Resource Manager (OHRM), a relational data curation and web publication system developed by the eScholarship Research Centre and its predecessors at the University of Melbourne 1999-2020. The OHRM has been maintained by Gavan McCarthy since 2020.

Cite this page: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P005941b.htm

"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260